Like many other animals, humans produce nonverbal signals including screams, grunts, roars, cries and laughter across a variety of contexts.Due to their acoustic structure, nonverbal vocalizations and valanced speech (e.g., yelling) are also likely to elicit predictable physiological, perceptual or behavioural responses in the receiver of the signal (the listener). This is critical if researchers are to gain a comprehensive understanding of the broad range of mechanisms and the evolved functions of acoustic communication.
Therefore, in this research, investigators will examine specifically how exposure to vocal stimuli affects both the cognitive and biological responses of the listener.
None
Pregnancy
Hearing impairment, speech production disorders or major health problems.
Healthy adult population aged 18 to 80 years
Other
Prospective
Psycho-acoustic tests
BehavioralListeners' cognitive and biological responses to vocal stimuli will be tested using psycho-acoustic tests. After listening to acoustic stimuli, participants will be asked to judge these stimuli on relevant evaluation criteria (e.g., "how distressed does this person sound?"). These stimuli might be human voices, animal voices or synthetic voices Physiological measures will be simultaneously taken using an array of complimentary, non-invasive techniques such as the Nociception Level (NOL) Index or video pupillometry
Proportion of correct responses in a forced-choice task after vocal stimuli
Participants will be asked to judge vocal stimuli Example : "Of the two baby cries you listened to, which one do you think shows the most distress"
Numerical values of judgements along a scale
Participants will be asked to judge vocal stimuli Example : participants may be asked to judge, along a gradient (from 0 to 100), "how consistent the distress of the baby you heard is to you".
Response time (second)
Participants will be asked to judge vocal stimuli In this case, the participant is instructed to respond as soon as possible. The response time for each stimulus is then systematically measured
Heart rate (bpm)
Skin conductance (Siemens)
Skin temperature (°C)
Nociception Level Index (NOL)
A non-invasive finger probe, containing four sensors, will be placed on the on the index finger of the participants.
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne
Lead sponsor
University of Lyon
Collaborator
